Moral entities. Comparative study of two stories about murderers (African Psycho by Alain Mabanckou and American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis)

Abstract

The article is a comparative study of two murderers, characters from novels African Psycho (2003) written by Alain Mabanckou and American Psycho (1991) by Bret Easton Ellis. Francophone African literature becomes a discursive field to discuss the effects of colonial oppression and conditions in which modern decolonised societies are transformed. The aim of this study on the novel African Psycho is showing a relationship between manifestation of physical abuse and economical violence, which is a remainder of colonial history of Republic of the Congo. In a comparison of two commented novels final thoughts are concerning the capacity of main book characters as subjects of moral judgements. Their peculiar psychical condition (biographical discontinuity, isolation, desire of evil) is an evidence of „depowerment”. That is why their capability of self-understanding and ethical responsibility is being questioned. Methodological basis of this research are comparative studies, ethics (Immanuel Kant, Friedrich Nietzsche, Michail Bachtin, Zygmunt Bauman) and postcolonial theory (Frantz Fanon, Achille Mbembe).